The 835th Bombardment Squadron is an inactive United States Army Air Forces unit. It was activated in January 1941 as the 80th Bombardment Squadron and equipped with Douglas A-20 Havoc light bombers. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor the squadron began to fly antisubmarine patrols off the Atlantic coast and over the Caribbean Sea, becoming the 9th Antisubmarine Squadron.
In October 1942, the Army Air Forces organized its antisubmarine forces into the single Army Air Forces Antisubmarine Command, which established the 26th Antisubmarine Wing the following month to control its forces operating over the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea.[4][5] The command's bombardment group headquarters, including the 45th, were inactivated and the squadron, now designated the 9th Antisubmarine Squadron, was assigned directly to the 26th Wing.[2][3]
By the fall of 1942, the U-boat threat along the Atlantic coast had substantially diminished, but German wolfpacks were attacking merchant shipping in the waters near Trinidad. In November, the squadron moved seven radar-equipped B-18B and three B-18C Bolos,[citation needed] to Edinburgh Field, where it joined elements of the 25th Bombardment Group, a Sixth Air Force unit, that was also engaged in antisubmarine patrols.[6] They remained there until March 1943, when the 9th returned to its base in Miami.[2][7][8]
In July 1943, the AAF and Navy reached an agreement to transfer the coastal antisubmarine mission to the Navy. This mission transfer also included an exchange of AAF long-range bombers equipped for antisubmarine warfare for Navy Consolidated B-24 Liberators without such equipment.[9]
Combat in the European theater
After the Navy assumed its mission, the squadron was redesignated the 835th Bombardment Squadron and moved to Davis-Monthan Field, Arizona, where it formed the cadre for the 486th Bombardment Group, which had been activated at McCook Army Air Field, Nebraska on 20 September 1943 as a Consolidated B-24 Liberator unit. The group headquarters joined the squadron at Davis-Monthan in November and trained for combat. The squadron began deploying overseas in early March 1944.[2][10] Its air echelon flew its Liberators along the southern ferry route.[11]
The squadron was occasionally diverted from strategic targets to support ground forces. Preparing for Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy, it attacked bridges, V-weapons launch sites, and airfields. On D-Day, it bombed gun positions. As Allied forces advanced across northern France in the summer of 1944, it attacked troop concentrations and road junctions. During Operation Market Garden, it struck gun positions near Arnhem to minimize losses among glider and paratroopers attempting to seize bridges across the Rhine River.
On 15 October 1944, a B-17G of the squadron, 43-38137, crashed on takeoff from RAF Sudbury. The plane's only survivor was the pilot, who was severely injured; a civilian in a house that was struck was also killed. A memorial plaque can be seen in Sudbury, and a propeller from the plane is part of a memorial at Barksdale Global Power Museum in Louisiana.[13][14]
In December 1944 and January 1945, the squadron supported troops fighting the Battle of the Bulge. In the spring of 1945, it supported Operation Varsity, the airborne assault across the Rhine.[10] The squadron flew its last mission on 21 April 1945.[11]
The squadron remained in England until August 1945, when it returned to the United States. Its aircraft began departing in early July, while its ground echelon sailed on the RMS Queen Elizabeth on 25 August, arriving in New York City six days later.[11] The 835th reassembled at Drew Field, Florida, in September, but was inactivated there on 7 November 1945.[2]
Lineage
Constituted as the 80th Bombardment Squadron (Light) on 20 November 1940
Activated on 15 January 1941
Redesignated 80th Bombardment Squadron (Medium) on 30 December 1941
Redesignated 9th Antisubmarine Squadron (Heavy) on 29 November 1942
Redesignated 835th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy) on 23 September 1943
Redesignated 835th Bombardment Squadron, Heavy c. 1944
^The United States impounded 356 DB-7s ordered for France or Great Britain Baugher, Joseph (27 October 2001). "Douglas DB-73". Joe Baugher. Retrieved 1 November 2018.
^ Identifiable is Ford Motors built Consolidated B-24M-5-FO Liberator, serial 44-50581. This aircraft survived the war and was sent to Kingman Army Air Field, Arizona on 3 January 1946 for scrapping. Baugher, Joe (10 June 2023). "1944 USAF Serial Numbers". Joe Baugher. Retrieved 27 July 2023.
Freeman, Roger A. (1970). The Mighty Eighth: Units, Men and Machines (A History of the US 8th Army Air Force). London, England, UK: Macdonald and Company. ISBN978-0-87938-638-2.